That’s the saying, right? Not quite? Well, it is a saying that we use in our house a lot. And we don’t use it in reference to raising children. Instead, it is often used in reference to travel (if that somehow wasn’t obvious).

My husband and I are not fans of many travel guides. Sure, they have beautiful pictures and some good, general advice. But in this day and age, they are outdated almost as soon they are printed. Restaurants and hotels close, admission prices change, monuments are under construction. But for us, guide books are outdated in another way – they don’t take into account cheaper, more rapid travel.

Here’s what I mean… have you ever read a travel book and it suggests you spend an insane amount of time in some tiny town in the middle of nowhere – “in order to really get a deep appreciation of Castelmoron-d’Albret, France, you will need to plan to spend at least two weeks there.” Yeah, no thanks. Don’t get me wrong, you might need a full two weeks to get a deep appreciation of the smallest town in France but very few, non-independently wealthy, childless people have that kinda time. Or patience.

We see the same thing on message boards when looking for tips on our upcoming trips. Someone will chime in and say things like “A couple days in a city, especially Munich and Prague is not nearly enough.” For some people, that might be true. But we don’t have that kind of time. We can’t spend two weeks in Castelmoron-d’Albret – there’s just too much of the world to see! Hell, we’ve been known to traverse whole countries in two days. If we have any free time, and the tickets are cheap enough (yes, there is an informal ratio for this determination) then we just go!

Case in point: we recently came across ridiculously cheap airfare to Munich. Like $300 round trip cheap. Because the airfare was so cheap, we figured we could go for a long weekend (or less than the few days most people think is enough time). So while the journey to Germany will be long, and the stay only a couple of days, it is worth it to us for the experience.

All of this is to say, don’t be intimidated by short trips, especially if the price is right. Everyone assumes that flying to Europe or Asia or South America has to be expensive and time consuming. It doesn’t have to be either. And if you want to be well-traveled and make amazing memories with your children, take a chance on some cheap tickets, even though the journey might be long but the trip short.